


Mr. Loverman

by lesbian_for_lou



Series: Larry Family AU [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Best Friends, Daddy Issues, Drug Use, Eating Disorders, Established Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Parents Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:07:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29971629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbian_for_lou/pseuds/lesbian_for_lou
Summary: Leo met Sasha Styles on the first day of freshman year, and knew he was screwed. Leo was gay, Sasha was not(as far as Leo knew, at least). Leo's family was never gonna be okay with the gay thing. Sasha's family... well, Sasha had 2 dads, so they'd be okay with it.This is apart of a Dad! Larry universe. This is Leo's side of the story.
Relationships: Gigi Hadid/Zayn Malik, Harry Styles & Louis Tomlinson
Series: Larry Family AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2204475
Kudos: 2





	Mr. Loverman

"High school was going to be better, I know it is. It has to be. I don’t know what I’ll do if it’s not."

Public school was a foreign concept to Leo. He’d gone to Catholic school his entire life. Which was a nightmare. It was like that for most people. Worse for him. Every year, three weeks before school he’d be dragged out of his room by his grandmother where take him into the kitchen and shave his head as she did every 3 months. His hair wasn’t allowed to grow too long past a buzz cut. It would get “too feminine” as his grandparents had told him several times. Then, after that, he’d shower and get dressed and then be taken to pick up his new uniforms for school. And then he’d endure an awful dinner with his grandparents where they’d rant about their bigoted views, his dad would occasionally nod, and he’d sit petrified in fear, hoping he didn’t look as bad as he felt. 

Except this year, three weeks from school, he woke up late in his bed and got to lounge around all day. And then it hit two weeks. One week. Day before. He never got dragged out of bed. His head didn’t get shaved. His grandmother was nowhere to be seen. His dad had finally gotten a new job, meaning they got to move seven and a half hours away from his grandparents. To L.A. Los Angeles. The city. He didn’t care about L.A. What he cared about was that he was free from the wrath of his grandparents and their bigotry AND he didn’t have to see his dad because he worked a shit ton of overtime. Win-win. Leo got to lay in bed all summer and watch shitty daytime television and watch YouTube videos. He probably should've gotten a job. Or explored the area. But he wasn’t in the mood to get kidnapped. He’d make friends in school and they’d show him around. Hopefully. 

He didn’t have many friends in Tahoe. He was a bit of a loner. No one really liked him in Catholic school because they all knew about his mom, so he’d get disapproving looks all day. He’d spend the summer swimming and the winter snowboarding, all of this in between sermons and lectures that just made him feel more and more guilty about even existing. Apparently he lived in sin. He didn’t even do anything. For Leo, even breathing was a sin of some sort. But it didn’t have to be. He was going to go to an L.A. public high school and he was going to make friends and get a girlfriend and he’ll have repented and everything was going to be good again. Then, if he got lucky, maybe his mom would come back and everything would be okay. His dad would maybe like him again. And it’d be him, his mom, his dad, and no grandparents. That was the goal. He just had to be normal.  
School started on a Tuesday instead of a Monday. He didn’t get that. But there was some note about Monday being a teacher development day and Tuesday being the start of school. He was excited. Hopeful, even. This was a new start, and one that he wasn’t gonna allow himself to fuck up. He was a fuck up, and that why everything had gone wrong. He could’ve been enough for his mom to stay for, and if his mom stayed then his dad would’ve loved him still instead of avoiding him all hours of the day by hiding out under the ruse of overtime. He told himself it was because he couldn’t do math. He wished it was that simple. It wasn’t because he couldn’t do math. His mom had never cared about that. His grandma always did, always calling him stupid for it. His dad was indifferent. Always indifferent because even if Leo didn’t like to think about it, his father couldn’t give a shit about him because Leo was just a reminder that his mother had fled and was off somewhere shooting up. Or dead. He hoped not dead. He thought he’d have felt it if she was. 

Leo woke up on Tuesday, ready for his new start. No fuck ups this time. He was going to be nice and polite and social and make eye contact and ask questions and pretend to be good at math until he met a friend that was nice enough to do his work for him and then help him get through tests. Friends. That was a big one. He was gonna make friends. Start the foundation for getting a girlfriend. And then he’d be set. All good. He just had to get to school first. 

He got to school early. By about a half an hour, because his dad drove him and his dad had to get to work on time. Which was at 8. So Leo got there at 7:30. And he got to his first class, which was math, without any difficulties. The door was closed though, so he walked to the library, which wasn’t too far, just down the stairs. And he sat in the library, which was mostly empty, and played some stupid game on his phone while listening to music with his earbuds. And he sat there for about ten minutes, when a girl pulled out a chair in front of him. He figured she was asking to borrow the chair, so he looked around, but the library had plenty of open spots. He pulled his earbud out and looked up at her, confused.  
“Huh?”  
“I said can I sit here?” She was blonde, like him, except she had hazel eyes. His were blue. She was pretty, though. Maybe they could be friends. Or maybe she’d date him. That was too soon to be thinking about though.  
“Oh, sure.” He nodded his head at her and she smirked and sat down.  
“I’m Isla by the way. I like your shirt.” He looked down, picking at the tshirt. It was a My Chemical Romance shirt. He wasn’t even a big fan of them anymore, but this was his lucky shirt. And he needed luck today. It was looking up, so far.  
“Oh, um, thanks. I’m Leo. ”  
“You’re a freshman, aren’t you?”  
“How’d you know?” She laughed, grinning widely, showing the gap between her teeth.  
“You’re kinda short, dude. And you look young. But it’s fine. I’m a freshman, too.”  
“Uh cool?” He really didn’t know what to say. He had been described as antisocial before, but that wasn’t very true. He was just bad at making friends. He was social once he’d made friends. It was just somewhat of a rare occurrence.  
“What’s your first class?”  
“Uh… math. With Mrs. Carter. Algebra 1.”  
“Sick. You’re with Evie, I think. She’s my best friend. She’s really nice… just...not very good at math.” This time, he laughs, covering his mouth.  
“I guarantee she’s better than I am. I’m awful. Can barely multiply.”  
“Dude, I’m sure you’re fine. She’s supposed to be nice. My sister had her. You two can fail together. Uh, what else do you have?”  
“Second period English, Martin. Third period, French 3. Then lunch… After that, it’s science and art. Science with Bennett and art with King.”  
“Oh! I guess I’ll see you in English. Honors, right?”  
“Mhm. I’m only bad at math, so yeah…”  
“Alright, well, I gotta go. I’ll see you around?” She smiles and he matches it, nodding.  
“Yeah, sure. See you in English.” And with that, he walks back up the stairs to math. He meets Evie. She’s sweet, kind of quiet. Ms. Carter, the teacher, is nice, too. Basic math must be the worst to teach. Math might be better this year, though. He still didn’t understand, but someone might try and help him. His mom tried. Until she stopped and then she left. But he didn’t wanna think about his mom today. Today was a good day. And today was about him, not her. 

After math, he made his way to Honors English 1. He knew he’d see Isla there. Hopefully she remembered him. Hopefully they’d be friends. Maybe when he explained it, after they were friends, they could date, and she could fix him. He had gotten to the English classroom, which was already somewhat full. Both seats next to Isla were taken, and she was talking to a kid with curly hair. He’d always liked curly hair. He decided he would take the seat in front and across from her, in front of the curly haired guy. He didn’t wanna think about why he’d chosen the seat besides to be close to Isla, who waved at him when he sat down, and then continued her conversation. Great. He nodded at her, and then his eyes flickered to the guy she was talking to. Besides curly hair, he also had green eyes. Green green green green green. God damnit. This was bad. No befriending this kid. 

He was stuck in his thoughts, revolving a bit around green eyes and curls only a few feet from him, when the teacher walked in. It was simple to say, but he looked mean. Like a bitter old bastard. He kinda reminded Leo of his grandfather. Who was awful, and a bitter old bastard. He didn't have much time to contemplate this as the teacher, Mr. Martin, jumped into introductions. He quickly made note of the fact that he was skipping the "stupid, time consuming kindergarten get-to- know-you games” which Leo actually appreciated. He would’ve liked the chance to find potential friends, though. Besides curly kid. No. That was a no. That would be very bad. Stick with Isla. Date her. Fix yourself. Martin started taking attendance, knocking Leo out of his thoughts.  
“Leo Kennedy?”  
“Here.” He continued through attendance, Leo’s eyes flickering around the room as names were called, Curly never responding to any of them, until,  
“Alexander Styles?” Alexander. Alex. Didn’t suit him. Leo hated when that happened, when people didn’t match their names. Leo thought he matched his, his mom had always said that they looked like a lioness and her cub. Leo the lion. And then,  
“Here, but sir, I actually go by Sasha.” Oh. This was very bad. Russian. Cool Russian nickname. Leo felt sick. He’d never even spoken to the kid, and yet he already felt weak. This was bad. Leo was a history nerd, specifically obscure areas. He’d done a project on the Romanov family and quickly fell down the rabbit hole of Russian history, and Sasha was the diminutive of Alexander. It was so… cool. And it suited him better than Alexander or Alex. Sasha Styles. He sounded like a rockstar. Looked like one, too. He bore a striking resemblance to Mick Jagger, with a bit of Heath Ledger. He was a star fallen to Earth. Except, Leo noticed he was shaking a bit. Martin had brushed off his note about his name and continued on with attendance. And Leo didn’t like that. He already had a reason to dislike him due to his short temper and resemblance to his grandfather, and this just added to it. Fuck this dude. He had finished attendance and announced that he was going to introduce the first unit, something on literary analysis with some book Leo had already read. Or rather a play. Romeo and Juliet. Leo hated Shakespeare. Martin started spouting off quickfire questions about the basic plot. The third was to Sasha. Except he called him Alexander. Once again, fuck this guy. What a dick. Sasha looked zoned out. Didn’t answer. That oughta be good. He could tell it wasn’t an act of defiance, and that Sasha really didn’t notice.  
“Alexander? “Alexander?” No response. “Are you serious? Just please, answer the question.” Once again, there was no answer. Oh. Oh, fuck. This was gonna be bad.  
“Oh, god. Sorry, I just.”  
“You weren’t paying attention?” Are you kidding me?  
“No, I was! I just, I don’t go by Alexander. No one calls me that, so like. I don’t associate that as my name?”  
“Oh, do you go by Alex or something then? Xander?”  
“I-uh. I go by Sasha, actually. It’s weird but…”  
“That’s not your name, though?” Right, that’s a fucking appropriate response. At this, Leo decided it was time to step in and defend the boy behind him, who, by the way, had long enough legs that they were stretching and almost touching the rubber cap of Leo’s desk legs.  
“Actually it is.Is it the Russian nickname? Like the diminutive?” Sasha jumps, startled, and looks at me, attempting, but failing, to avoid my eye contact.  
“I- uh, yeah. Actually, it is.” Oh god his voice was deep what the fuck is this kid some sort of demigod?  
“Also, it’s a little dismissive and rude to say that it’s not his name. What if someone told you that your name wasn’t your name just because of some sheet of paper?”  
“Leo, right?” Leo nodded, face stony and determined. “I think this is unnecessary. Sasha, I apologize, I don’t know how I was supposed to know, but let’s move on. That’s a warning.” Oh. Fuck him! A warning? It wasn’t even Sasha’s fault.  
“That wasn’t even an apology! He literally told you. It’s your fault for not listening.” Leo’s face was getting red. He’d always had issues with authority.  
“I did say something… you ignored me. So like, I don’t.. I don’t know what you want from me.” Leo turned and smiled at Sasha, a rare wide grin that reached his eyes  
“See, literally not his fault. I mean, you yelled at him for not paying attention when you didn’t even pay attention.” He really already hated this man.  
“Okay, we’ve wasted enough class time on this. Sasha, Leo, see me after class for a second?” Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. He already fucked up high school. He was gonna get killed. Did he even do anything wrong? He wasn’t able to pay enough attention to the rest of the class, which probably didn’t help. He wanted to throw up. Or go home. The rest of the class was a blur of him trying to ignore the pit in his stomach, and then at the end, Martin motioned to Leo and Sasha.  
“I usually don’t like to do this, but I want to set a precedent, so I want to see you both after school today for detention.” Leo was fucking livid.  
“I’m sorry, what? How is that fair?”  
“You were rude and disruptive. I don’t want to see it happening again.” The teacher had a bitter face, as if he’d swallowed a lemon. Why should he get to be bitter when he’s the one in the wrong?  
“I just, I don’t know what I did? Like.. you got my name wrong and I corrected you and Leo corrected you… I’m confused.” Sasha looked puppy-dog-is, his head even slightly tilting.  
“Once again, you were both disruptive. Detention after school for a half an hour. Am I clear?” Leo looked pissed. He was pissed. Now he had to sit in detention with rockstar Sasha, who by the way was probably 7 feet tall. This was gonna be bad. How was he supposed to ignore him now?  
“I- yes.” Leo doesn’t answer. He just nods. They walked out of the room side by side. Sasha was a little surprised when Leo grabbed his arm and started talking to him. Sasha jumped, eyes wide as if Leo was gonna hit him. Like he had been in the wrong. As if 5’8 Leo would hit Sasha, who should probably play basketball. He could dunk for sure.  
“Hey, Sasha.” Sasha looked down at Leo. Looked down. Leo was short.  
“Yeah?”  
“You know that wasn’t your fault right? Like, it was his. And probably mine. But you didn’t do anything wrong.” Oh. He wasn’t mad at me?  
“It wasn’t your fault either… He’s just a douche.” He laughed.  
“Ha, yeah. What’s your next class?”  
“Uh French 3?” Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Puppy dog, rockstar, Bambi leg Sasha had French with him.  
“Oh, sick. Same.” It was not sick. Speaking of sick, Leo was going to throw up. He barely made it through French. Sasha sat next to him. And they made jokes and Sasha poked fun at Leo’s awful handwriting, but in a nice way. He didn’t think Sasha had a mean bone in his body. Gentle giant. That was so bad. He wished Sasha was a massive douchebag. It would make things so much easier. But he was so nice, and he made stupid jokes. And he had dimples. Which was the worst part. Leo’s knees felt weak, and they probably would’ve buckled if he wasn’t sitting down. Dimples, and curly hair, and green green green green green eyes. Fuck off. And then he had lunch with Sasha. And Evie and Isla. But with Sasha. He was almost sad when he got to science and left. He had science with Isla, though. It was Biology, which didn’t require too much math, Leo thought. So that was good. And Leo liked art. Loved the teacher. She was nice. All of his teachers were. Except douchebag bitter old bastard Martin. Who he had detention with. And when he got to detention, there was already a guy there, an upperclassman. Junior, senior? Who knows? Leo sat a few rows from him. Sasha came in later, sitting down next to Leo. Leo took out his earbuds, greeting him. At this, the upperclassman turns to him.  
“Hey kid. Aren’t you a freshman?”  
“Uh, yeah?”  
“How’d you get detention? It’s like… the first day.”  
“Martin thought I was being rude, apparently.”  
“Yeesh. I get it, though,” He turned to Sasha. “What about you? Usually he’d go easy on transfers?” Yeah. Sasha looked way older than a freshman.  
“I-um. I’m a freshman. We were in the same class.”  
“Oh! Damn. What’d you do?”  
“Literally nothing.”  
“Yeah, figures. He has like some vendetta or something against me. You guys, though, he must really hate you if he gave freshmen detention on the first day.”  
Leo scoffed. “Ha. Tell me about it. Dick.” He rolls his eyes and Martin walks in, greets them and sits down. He doesn’t address them otherwise. Leo turned away and took out a notebook and two pens. He tossed Sasha one, ripped out a piece of paper, and scratched something down on it, grinning. After about ten seconds, he folded the sheet of paper and passed it to him. Martin was busy on his computer, typing away and the junior, who’s name was Asher, had his head on the desk. Sasha took the paper and unfolded it. He had scrawled a message in green pen and his messy handwriting was beautifully distinct.  
“Dude I hate this. Why are we even here? Bet we could sneak out and he wouldn’t even notice.” Sasha smiled at him and picked up the pen, clicking it.  
“Let’s not try it. We’d be here every day.” He passed it back to him. Leo scratches a note, passes the paper back.  
“Give me your number. He’ll be annoyed if he catches us passing notes.” Sasha grinned and nodded, writing his number underneath the message. So much for not befriending him. Too late now, Leo thought. They were gonna be friends, maybe. Hopefully. It’s not every day you meet a star. And Sasha was a star. Leo could tell, and he prided himself on being a good judge of character. So Leo decided he was gonna stick with Sasha, Evie, and Isla and maybe date one of the girls if they were up for it and then everything would be fixed. Day one of high school was pretty much a success, besides detention.  
The 30 minutes had gone fast. His dad had told him he needed to take the bus home, but he’d missed his. He could catch a late bus, or take public transport. But he’d need a bus pass, which he hadn’t gotten yet. He needed to ask his dad to get him one. Now he had to walk. He lived about 7ish miles away from the school, which wasn’t bad at all. But it was gonna feel like hell to walk that. If he didn’t get kidnapped. That’d been an irrational fear of his since they moved. But he’d be fine. He just needed to stop worrying about it and get over it.  
“Hey, Leo?” It was Sasha, because of course it was. Leo needed to get out of his own head.  
“Yeah?”  
“Do you need a ride? Uh, my dad told me to ask you.” Oh god. Now his family was nice, too. Fuck nice families.  
“Are you sure it’s okay? Usually I’d take the bus, but... God this is awkward. I’m really sorry. I probably shouldn’t be taking rides from people I barely know.” The light in Sasha’s eyes falters, and he looks down, grin falling.  
“Oh, yeah. It’s fine. I just wanted to make sure. I don’t want you to have to walk.” Leo bites his lip and then makes the wrong choice.  
“Uh… yeah. Okay. Thanks… so much. I’ll give you my address?”  
“Just tell my dad. He’s nice, I promise.”  
“And he’s not mad about detention?”  
“Nah, he’s chill. I explained. Gonna get yelled at later, but probably not too badly.”  
“Well, it was kinda my fault. Your dad probably hates me already.” Sasha laughs, shaking his head at that, as if it were an impossible idea.  
“Dude, it wasn’t your fault. And you don’t know my dad. He’s pretty easy going. He’s probably happy that you defended me. My parents are always going on and on about how I need to speak up for myself.”  
“Oh.. okay then, uh thanks.”  
“Alright, let’s go then?” They walk across the lot to a car. A big car. One of those FBI tanks. The big Suburbans.  
“Hey man, is your dad an FBI agent?” Sasha laughed, but Leo was actually a little bit intimidated.  
“No, he’s a baker. I just have three siblings and we all need to be driven to different places so it’s easier.” Oh. Well that was a relief. Leo didn’t need to go pissing off an FBI agent. But befriending a baker’s son potentially meant discounted pastries. Leo did choose a good friend, he supposed. They jumped into the backseat of the car. Leo thought it was nice of Sasha to not just leave him in the backseat all alone.  
“Uh, hi.. I’m Leo… Thank you so much for the ride.. I’m so sorry about detention.” The man laughed at him, his laugh mirroring Sasha’s almost exactly, except his voice was more assured than Sasha’s; settled with age and less shaky. It was comforting.  
“It’s okay Leo, you don’t have to apologize. Unless Sasha lied, which at this point I’m trusting that he didn’t, it seemed more like the teacher’s issue than yours. Thank you for defending Sasha, I don’t know if he thanked you, but he should’ve. I’m Harry by the way.” Oh my god fuck nice families. Why didn’t Leo get a family like this? He figured Sasha’s mom would be just as nice and his siblings were probably lovely. Leo really shouldn’t get to associate with nice people. As nice as they were, they’d surely judge him after finding out about his fucked up situation. But that was irrelevant. They didn’t need to know about that. He gave Harry his address, to which he responded that he knew where the apartment complex was, and then asked if he could turn the music up. It was Fleetwood Mac. Speaking of old rock, Harry looked even more like Mick Jagger than Sasha did. He supposed that was how genes worked. Harry Styles was also a rockstar name. Maybe they were both famous in a different life. Leo didn’t notice himself singing along under his breath. It was Go Your Own Way. Sasha was, too. He had a good voice, from what he could hear. Maybe he really would be a rockstar, someday. While Leo was daydreaming about Sasha as a rockstar, the song had ended. When Leo realized what song was now playing, he couldn’t muffle his gasp.  
“You a Bowie fan?”  
“Love Bowie. How can you not?” Dads always loved talking about old music. Most dads. His dad didn’t really talk to him, but he didn’t care because he got to talk about music with someone who seemed interested. But he couldn’t project on Harry because Harry was obviously a Good Dad™ and the Styles’ were obviously a Good Family™ so Leo couldn’t mess that up for them. Get the ride, thank them, be distant friends with Sasha.  
“Oh believe me, I know. I’ve spent years conditioning Sasha to have the same music taste as I do, but it hasn’t worked as well as I’d hoped. He listens to this god awful sad aggressive guitar music.” Sasha rolls his eyes.  
“It’s called folk punk. It’s supposed to be angsty. And besides, I listen to your old man vintage music all the time.” And he listened to folk punk. Why does an upper middle class L.A. boy listen to folk punk? That was bad news. Bad bad news. Leo listened to that shit. And it was shitty. That’s like… the whole point.  
Rocketman was playing now. Leo wasn’t too much of an Elton guy, but Harry and Sasha clearly were. It was endearing. Watching them sing along together. They’d almost reached Leo’s apartment. He wished they’d gotten lost. Or there was traffic. It’s nice to pretend you’re a part of someone else’s life, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. Then he’d go into his room, lay in bed and fantasize about having a different life. About what his life was like if he was a part of their life, their family. It’d be better, he thinks.  
And then, it was over. They pulled up in front of the building. Harry pulled to a stop and Sasha stopped singing, his smile dropping.  
“Is your dad home? Do you have a key? And someone to check in on you? Do you have a doorman?” Oh. It was like he cared. Maybe he’d pretend to for a bit. It felt nice.  
“I’m fine, I have a key.. And a doorman. It’s all good. Thanks for the ride. Uh, I’ll see you tomorrow Sasha?” Sasha was snapped out of his thoughts.  
“Oh, yeah… tomorrow. Bye Leo.”  
“It was nice to meet you, Leo. Just let Sasha know if you ever need a ride.”  
“Thank you. So much.” Leo jumped, yes jumped, out of the tank of a car and his feet hit the pavement. He walked to the door, turned and waved. Harry smiled, Sasha tried to. He waved, though. Something inside Leo sank.  
He turned back around and went into his apartment building, taking the elevator and going up to the 3rd floor, unlocking his door and then locking it behind him. Today went well. Kind of. He made friends. That was good. Now he needed to forget about Sasha in any way besides platonically.  
But that proved to be difficult. Very difficult. As he made mac n cheese and looked at his school work from the day, he thought of green eyes. He laid in bed that night, after watching hours of mind-numbing cable television, he thought about curls and dimples. And about Fleetwood Mac, and David Bowie, and Elton John. And L.A. residents that looked like old rock stars. And stars that had fallen to earth. And about the idea of having a family. And then, he knew he was fucked.


End file.
